Shocker's Last Stand
by eternalscrappy
Summary: After being beat on and pushed around his entire career, The Shocker makes one final stand to change it all around. Note: This story takes place after the 2005 formation of the New Avengers.
1. Chapter 1

Shocker's Last Stand – Chapter 1

On a dark and cloudy Friday night, Herman Schultz walks from his job to his parole officer's office and contemplates his life. He thinks about the old days. From making his vibro-shock gauntlets in prison all the way to the last battle he had with Spider-man when he teamed with Hydro-man. He thinks about being a part of the Masters of Evil and the Sinister Seven. He even remembers the time he manipulated the stock market and stole a million dollars. But all that quickly fades when he thinks about where he is now: another ex-con trying to make it legit.

He walks inside and spots his parole officer sitting at his desk. "Sherman, have a seat. It's been what, two weeks now since your release?"

"It's Herman and yes."

"And you're working at the diner just up the street from here right?"

"Yes. They have me working on the grill. I'm not very good though."

"I know. I got a complaint yesterday from the owner. He says customers are getting undercooked and burnt food."

"I'm sorry. It's just a hard job."

"Yes but you need to learn and fast."

"But…"

"No buts. You need to learn or there's going to be problems. I have a lot of clients now because of the Raft being torn to shreds. Prisons can't hold the extra prisoners so the board is giving some early parole and they all need jobs. You're lucky to get such a good one."

"I know. And I am grateful but…"

"No buts, Sherman. If you lose this job you're screwed. Now how's your housing going?"

"It's Herman, and I'm living with my girlfriend right now."

"That's nice. And you're following all the curfews?"

"Yes. It's been a little rough though. Being in and out of prison and all really..."

"That's nice, Sherman. I'm sure it's a great story, but I got things to do. I'll see you again next week."

"Ok." Herman puts his head down and walks out the door.

As he steps out of the elevator, Herman notices two boxes outside the door of his apartment. He tries to use his key but the door won't unlock. He knocks on the door and hears his girlfriend yelling from inside the apartment. "Go away, Herm."

"Natalie, open the door."

"That's all your stuff. Now go."

"Nat, please." She opens the door and walks back into the kitchen. He enters the apartment and follows her inside. He tries to talk to her as she cleans up the apartment. "What is all this, baby?"

"I've had it, Herman."

"Had what?"

"I'm fed up!"

"Don't yell."

"Your shit job is not going anywhere, this shit apartment is falling apart and looking at you everyday is making me more and more depressed."

"We can work through this."

She stops cleaning and throws her hands down. "No, Herman! No. I'm sorry, but I'm never going to make it as an actress being in a relationship with an ex-con. I'm sorry. Now please, leave before I call the police."

Herman walks out the door, picks up his boxes and looks into the apartment from the doormat. His girlfriend walks over to the doorway and looks at him for one last second. "I'm sorry. Goodbye." She then shuts the door in his face.

Herman walks out of the apartment building holding his boxes and stops at the bottom of the stairs. After taking a deep breath in a crash of thunder roars above his head. He looks up and it begins to pour.

Herman drops the boxes on the floor and sits down on the steps. He looks around at the people walking by him with umbrellas and grinds his teeth to hold in the tears. A man walking by with an umbrella bends down and puts a dollar in the box. Herman looks at it and takes another deep breath.

Then he notices the pocket watch next to the dollar. He picks it up and remembers when his father gave it to him, a gift from his first day of high school. He opens it up and looks at the engraving: "TO HERMAN. NEVER GIVE UP. YOU'RE GOING TO SHOCK THEM ALL. LOVE, DAD." He makes a fist squeezing the watch. Herman then gets up and runs down the street.

Phineas Mason wakes up in his warehouse to a ringing doorbell. He rolls over in his bed and looks at the time. Four A.M. He gets up, puts on his bathrobe and walks over to the door.

Mason looks at the security cam and sees Herman Schultz standing in the pouring rain by his door. He hits the intercom. "Herman? Is that you?"

"Yeah. It's me, Mason. Open up."

"It's pouring. What are you doing?"

"I have to see you. Just open the door."

"Hold on." He opens the door and a soaked Herman walks through. Mason backs up to keep from getting wet. "What are you doing here, Schultz?"

"You remember that Shocker suit we designed that would make my old one look like a can opener?"

"Oh my God. Not again, Herman."

"Listen to me."

"No. I'm done being the Tinkerer. I'm old. And ever since that thing in Latveria I've been on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar big time. I can't do this."

"I need it. Now."

"I can't, Herman. I'm sorry. And even if I could give it to you, do you remember why we scrapped the idea? The vibrations from the gauntlets would be too strong. It would scramble your brain like a milkshake. Your internal organs would fall apart from the stress. Only a Norse God could take that kind of pressure."

"I don't care. I want it."

"Herman, I'm sorry."

Schultz takes a gun out of his jacket and grabs Mason by the collar pointing the gun in his face. "Now you listen here, old man! Either you give me my suit right now or you're dead!?"

"Herman, I'm so old I could die any second regardless."

"Give it to me!?"

"How long have we known each other, kid? I know you. You're no stone cold killer."

"Don't test me, Grandpa!"

"Look at your hand. You're shaking. You can't kill someone like this. I can see it in your eyes."

Herman lowers his gun and his head at the same time. Phineas puts his hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Herman. I am."

Herman drops to his knees crying while staring at the ground. "I need this, Phineas. I'm worthless. I've failed at everything I've ever done. And now I've got nothing left. Nothing. I want to do something. Anything. I just want to matter to the world." He looks up and Mason sees the tears running down his face. "Please, Tinkerer. Help me."

It seems like a pretty normal day for Carl Jenkins. At least as normal as it gets on a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. Jenkins sits at his computer and types up mission reports all day. It's a boring job but somebody has to do it.

He types away and goes online every once in a while to talk to friends. One of his colleagues, Sandra Tremont, leans over and sees a chat box on the screen. "Oooo. Somebody's not doing their job."

"Shut up. You want to get us in trouble."

"Us? You're the one not doing work."

"I'm multi-tasking."

"Ha. You couldn't multi-task if your life depended on it." She goes back in front of her desk.

He tries to peak on her screen. "And what're you doing? Huh, little miss perfect?"

"I'm writing reports. You know why? Because it is my j-o-b, dumbass."

"Wow. You're lucky you're a girl or I would…" He's cut off by a sudden shake on the carrier. Carl looks around. "Earthquake?"

Sandra rolls her eyes at him. "You're such an idiot. How did you ever get a job here?"

"Well we got two options. Earthquake or another Hydra attack. And I really don't feel like going through that again."

Another shake rocks the helicarrier and plummet to the ground. Sandra screams. "Hold on!" After a freefall for a couple seconds the carrier slams into the New York City street skidding to a halt.

Carl grabs Sandra. "Are you ok?"

"I'll be better if you didn't grab my boob."

"Sorry. Let's get out of here."

The two go to the wall and kick the rubble out of the way. They see daylight and make their way out. Smiles grow across their faces quickly fade by the sight of a new and improved Shocker standing before them. He then points both his arms with his shiny gauntlets right at them. "Good morning, S.H.I.E.L.D. The Tinkerer sends his regards."


	2. Chapter 2

Shocker's Last Stand – Chapter 2

Peter Parker hates mornings at Stark Tower. He can't help but wake up, look around and feel guilty about where he's living. He knows he doesn't deserve it but then he looks at his wife sleeping in bed and tells himself its ok because she deserves it. Her and Aunt May both. They deserve it for all he puts them through.

He makes his way from his bedroom to the kitchen and finds Logan watching cartoons at the table with Luke Cage. "Now there's something you don't see everyday: two of the most bad ass Avengers watching the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. What do you see in that show?"

Logan keeps his eyes glued to the television. "I was a Samurai remember?"

"A turtle Samurai?"

"It's all relative."

Luke Cage puts his finger to his lips. "Shhhhh. I can't hear."

Pete goes over to the counter and pours some cereal when Jessica Drew walks into the room. "Oooo. Ninja Turtles. Yay." Pete stops pouring his cereal and sighs. "Earth's Mightiest Heroes my ass. I need to get out of here."

Pete goes back to his room, throws on his webs, and goes for a swing.

As Spider-man swings through the city he spots smoke in the distance. He quickly makes his way over there and sticks to a wall next to the source of the smoke. He sees a downed S.H.I.E.L.D. hellicarrier and Shocker destroying everything in sight. "Hey Shocky. Nice new look. Where'd you get it? J.C. Penny?"

Shocker doesn't say a word. He just points and fires. Spidey barely manages to jump to the ground. "Wow. Those things are a lot faster than I remember."

"Time to die, wall-crawler."

"Really? I thought it was 10:30."

Shocker fires another blast but this time Spider-man anticipates it and flips out of the way. While in mid-air, he fires a web line at Shocker's head but the line hits a sonic shield and dissipates. Spidey lands crouched. "Ok? That's new too."

Shocker fires both gauntlets into the ground forming two destructive waves. He then swings them at Spider-man as if they were huge swords destroying everything in their path. Spider-man dodges every attempt to hit him with grace and agility.

After landing on a light post, Spidey catches a huge chunk of rubble from a building with a web-line and swings it at his enemy. "I believe this is yours." Shocker turns the 'swords' off and punches the giant rock. It shatters into a million pieces and he fires more blasts at the web-slinger. Spider-man drops to the ground and flips over a car on the side of the street. He then hides behind it as Shocker fires, but the blasts go right through the car leaving a giant hole.

Spider-man looks through the hole at Shocker. "Hope this guy's got car insurance." Shocker fires at the building above Spidey and debris drops on his head. Spider-man jumps forward out of the way but as he's about to land Shocker fires downward and rumbles the ground.

As the unsuspecting Spider-man stumbles on his landing, Shocker runs over, grabs him by the neck and lifts him off the ground. "Ever have a migraine, web-head?"

Shocker puts the gauntlet of his other hand up against Spider-man's head. He pushes the trigger and a sonic wave shoots through Spidey's brain. He lets out a blood curdling scream. His nose starts to bleed and the blood begins to seep through his mask.

The smile growing underneath Shocker's mask slowly fades when he hears the sirens. "Looks like I'm going to have some fun with NYPD's finest. See you in hell, you wall crawling piece of shit."

Shocker then sonic punches Spider-man in the gut sending him back into the building behind him. The building shakes back and forth before collapsing on top of the half-dead Spidey.

Underneath the rubble, a badly injured Spider-man controls his breathing to use up as little air as possible. He tries to lift the bricks but he's just too weak. His head still rings from the sonic waves Shocker ran through it and being thrown into a building didn't help either.

His mask and costume are ripped and blood drips from his nose.

Right before he feels his consciousness slipping the bricks start to move and he sees light. After a couple more seconds all the bricks are gone and the Avengers stand before him.

Spidey looks up at Wolverine. "What took you guys so long?" Wolverine extends his hand. "Sorry. Pokemon wasn't over yet."

Spider-woman looks around and sees nothing but destruction. "The Shocker did all this?" Spider-man dusts himself off. "Yeah."

Luke Cage turns from looking at all the destruction back towards Spider-man. "But he's B-class." Spidey answers. "Not even. He's C-class. But something's different about him. He's never this savage. He almost….he almost reminded me of Carnage. It was like he enjoyed the destruction."

Captain America steps forward. "We have to stop him. He's still at it. Made it up twenty blocks destroying everything in his path. Can you fight Spider-man?"

"I don't even think I can walk, but that's never stopped me before. Let's go."

Captain America walks up to Shocker as he randomly blows holes in a building. "Herman Schultz, you are under arrest for the destruction of New York City. Put the gauntlets down."

"How about you go shove that shield right up your ass!?"

He fires, but Cap blocks it with his shield. The vibranium neutralizes the shock but the force is still tremendous. It's so great it pushes Cap back. He digs his feet into the ground for traction but he can't fight it. He grinds his teeth to keep from moving and yells out. "A little help here!"

Iron Man lands behind Shocker and fires a repulsor blast. Shocker takes his other gauntlet and fires back at Iron Man. The two blasts meet each other in a stalemate. Shocker is standing in the middle of the street between two of the greatest super heroes the Earth has ever known and pushing both of them back.

As Shocker lets out a scream Iron Man starts to inch back more and more until his blast becomes weaker. Amazed at Shocker's power Iron Man whispers to himself. "Impossible."

Meanwhile, Luke Cage runs straight at Shocker. "He's all mine." Cage tackles Shocker and keeps running him straight into a building.

Luke gets up and sees a giant pile of rubble in front of him. "Like I said: B-class." Then a rock falls from the pile and a charged up gauntlet is pointing straight at him. "Oh shit."

Spider-man and Spider-woman are standing a block away from the battle. Spider-woman watches as Spidey webs his arm up in a sling. "Pete, are you sure about this? You don't look too good."

"Shocker is my enemy. I've known him for a while and he's not capable of something like this. Something's wrong. I need to talk to him."

"Ok. But be careful. The last thing we need is another dead Avenger."

Just as she finishes her sentence, Luke Cage goes flying by and slams into the building next to them. They both look at each other. "We better get going."

As the two spiders make it to the battlefield they see Iron Man flying around dodging Shocker's blasts. Shocker's costume is almost covered in blood. Spidey looks at him. "Wow, he's killed a lot of people. Look at all that blood." Spider-woman gasps as she comes to a realization. "No. That blood is seeping through the costume. It's his."

Cap throws his shield at Shocker but his force-field deflects it and the shield shoots up in the air. Cap runs at him to kick him but Shocker catches his foot and sends him flying with a shock-punch.

With that little distraction, Iron Man flies towards Shocker, grabs him and flies straight up in the air. "Let's see how well you do in the upper atmosphere."

"Oh yeah? Well let's see how fast I can make this tin can of yours shake."

Shocker wraps his arms around Iron Man and pushes the trigger on his gauntlets. The Iron Man armor vibrates back and forth a billion times a second. Tony lets out a horrifying scream and the two of them plummet towards the Earth.

Spider-woman uses her web to catch Tony but Shocker hits the ground forming a huge crater.

Spidey, Captain America and Spider-woman all jump to the edge of the crater to witness Shocker stands with his mask off. The three of them are then horrified as to what they see. Shocker is bleeding from his eyes and ears. His face is completely pale and his eyes are bloodshot and dilated.

Spider-man gasps in shock. "Oh my God. His gauntlets, they're driving him insane."

Shocker makes a huge smile from ear to ear and lets out a terrifying laugh. "HAHAHA! You're the one insane web-head."

"Herman. This isn't you. Please stop."

"You're right! This isn't me! Herman is pathetic. He could never succeed at anything. But now, as the Shocker, I will leave my mark on the world like no man ever has."

Captain America shakes his head in disgust. "Except you're not a man; you're a monster."

"Shut your mouth, flag boy!"

Shocker fires a blast at Captain America and it's too fast for him to dodge. A direct hit sends Cap flying back and Spider-woman watches as he slams into a car. "Steve! You bastard!"

She fires her stingers but Shocker fires his gauntlets into the ground and they propel him out of the crater. He charges up his gauntlets to full power and electricity sparks all around him. "Now, it's time for the real fireworks."

High above the Earth, the Sentry flies through the air while holding Wolverine in his arms. "I don't know why you came back for me, Logan."

"Because you can single handedly wipe this guy off the face of the Earth. But noooooo. The void will kill us all, right?"

"Don't mock me. Where am I going?"

"Just follow the smoke, bub."

The Sentry flies over the smoke and sees electricity on the ground. "I think that's them."

"Ok. Bombs away, big guy."

The Sentry lets go and Logan falls to the ground far below.

Shocker stands tall and ready to fire his gauntlets at the spiders. "No more bank robberies. No more heists. This is it. Everything will die and the world will come to an end because of me! The Shocker!"

Just then Wolverine lands with one of his claws in Shocker's shoulder. Shocker lets out a scream and Wolverine pops out his other claws. "Not today, bub."

Wolverine thrusts his claws into Shocker's gauntlet and sparks a chain reaction. A huge blast sends Wolverine flying over the spiders' heads. Shocker is sent in the other direction.

The two spiders walk over to where they think Shocker landed and see a mortally wounded Herman Schultz lying on the ground. Spider-man kneels down next to him. "Herman. It didn't have to be like this."

"No. You still don't get it, do you? It always had to be like this."

As he dies the two lower their heads and walk away.

Luke Cage and Captain America are standing by the crater with the Sentry who holds Iron Man in his arms. The two spiders walk over to them and Spider-woman sees Stark motionless. "Is he unconscious?" Sentry looks down at Tony. "Yeah."

Wolverine walks over to them missing half his face. "Yeah, let's not worry about the mutant 'cause he got a healing factor." Luke Cage just smirks at Logan. "Shutup, furball. We all got blown up today."

"Yeah, but who saved the day? And I've been here for like five seconds?"

Captain America turns and leads the way home. "Let's head back."

Later, as the sun sets, Peter Parker goes to the roof of Stark Tower and sits over the edge. Steve Rogers follows and sees Peter sitting by himself. "What's on your mind, son."

"I…don't know."

"Well try your best to explain and I'll do my best to listen."

"Are we doing the right thing, Steve?"

"What do you mean?"

"Herman Schultz was a good man. He was a crook, yes, but he was no murderer. We…I drove him to that."

"You didn't make him do this, Pete."

"I know, but he's not a normal criminal. Normal criminals get caught, they go to prison and they get out and try to fix their lives. If it doesn't work it doesn't work, but men like Herman Schultz always have that option, that power to do the unthinkable."

"I don't understand."

"Is it our fault for putting men with such terrible power in a position of desperation? It's almost like we give them no choice but to snap and lose their minds."

"People are responsible for their own actions, Pete. You need to stop blaming yourself."

"Maybe you're right."

"Well come downstairs. Dinner is ready."

"I'll be right down."

As Rogers leaves him all alone, Peter looks out into the sunset and can only feel guilt for the death of Herman Schultz, The Shocker.


End file.
